It's Just Not Fair!It seems that last month’s article struck a chord with many of you, although a few readers have taken me to task over my dislike of internet competitions. So in the interests of self-preservation, may I say straight away that my comments last month were not in any way aimed at Compers News readers. This isn’t a cop-out; by reading this magazine you’re obviously embracing comping in all its forms and will doubtless consider any type of contest or entry route in pursuit of a prize. If you choose to have internet comps as part of your armoury, fair enough – I know I do if a prize is worthwhile.
My comments last month were aimed more at the breed of “comper” (and I’ve put that in inverted commas since I’m not entirely convinced that the term genuinely applies) who does nothing but no-skill web comps, seemingly by the hundred for every hour of every day. But don’t get me started on that again now!
What your comments did demonstrate is how unfair comping can sometimes seem to be – if you allow it, of course. I can’t think of any other hobby where you must ‘grin and bear it’ and ‘live and let live’ as much as ours.
If you work, then it’s ‘not fair’ that others have more time than you do. And if you don’t work, then it’s ‘not fair’ that others have more money. If you’re a man, then the latest competition on ladies’ perfume is ‘not fair’. If you’re a woman, all of the beer comps are ‘not fair’. Chocolate comps are ‘not fair’ if you’re on a diet, local comps are ‘not fair’ if you don’t live in the area, comps needing bottle tops are ‘not fair’ if you’re not a barman. Internet comps are ‘not fair’ if you don’t have a computer, phone comps are ‘not fair’ if you don’t have a phone, premium rate phone comps are ‘not fair’ if your office bars the numbers. One entry per household is ‘not fair’ since other compers always seem to be able to use more additional addresses than you. Compers who choose to keep themselves to themselves are ‘not fair’ since they should be helping others. And compers who choose to share are ‘not fair’ since a group’s combined resources will always give them the advantage over an individual working alone. Tiebreaker comps are ‘not fair’ since – well, you’re rubbish at them and that same bloke always seems to win. And, as for that winners list you’ve just seen, how ‘not fair’ was that? What were the judges thinking?!
I could go on, but I’m sure you get my drift. If we allowed every apparent injustice to get to us, we’d tear ourselves apart. Which is why, I suppose, comping in the main attracts the type of person that it does. Someone who’s able to forgive and forget, let go and move on. Someone who can laugh off the apparent ‘unfairness’ of it all, and instead focus on the positive aspects of our hobby. Of which – let’s be honest – there are absolutely loads!
As compers, we have no alternative but to accept what promoters throw at us. Companies don’t run competitions for our benefit after all (although it’s sometimes easy to forget this!), so we must be prepared to fit in with what a promoter wants and expects and not the other way round.
The old days of ‘answers on a postcard’ are long gone. In this age of customer profiles, demographics and databases, it’s easier than ever for a company to identify a specific target audience and tailor a promotion accordingly. If that means an internet or text comp designed to appeal to the younger consumer, or a simple instant-win aimed at the far-too-busy-to-enter-a-real-competition housewife, then we must go along with that. No amount of yearning for the ‘good old days’ is going to change anything – and as much as some of us protest, the days of really challenging comps that took weeks and even months to solve, or the really deserving winning tiebreaker that’s such a clever play on words that it takes you a fortnight to work it all out, are behind us. And if by some fluke we did come up with the most brilliant original slogan since ‘experts perfect them…’, the inexperienced judging panels that we seemingly have to endure these days would still miss it and give the top prize instead to – well, ‘experts perfect them…’ probably!
It’s just ‘not fair’! And never will be. So learn to live with it, and don’t let it get to you.
As I’ve already said, the ability to laugh off such injustices is a necessity for any comper. I realise that sometimes it can all get too much – in my own case, any winning phrase ending in “made men too” is usually enough to temporarily tip the balance!
Try to stay positive, choose competitions that play to your own individual strengths, and steer clear of anything where you think – for whatever reason – that you’ll be at a disadvantage. There’s plenty out there to choose from. If you go into a competition having already written off your chances, then what's the point? If you’re convinced at the outset that you’re not going to win a particular comp, then you’re never going to muster the confidence or extra spark to do the task justice and your subsequent failure to feature on the Winners List becomes an inevitable, self-fulfilling prophecy. So stick with what you’re good at and leave the rest for others to pick over.
It’s not compulsory for a comper to enter every comp they find out about. Honest!
Other comments from last month’s article focussed on my talk of ‘unwanted prizes’. Surely every prize can be sold, gifted or otherwise recycled and hence can never be ‘unwanted’? Well, not necessarily!
I appreciate that, with smaller prizes, these will doubtless have a resale value if nothing else. And, while the idea of trying for a prize that you don’t want simply “because it’s there” or to convert it to cash – thus depriving someone who genuinely would have appreciated the prize – is abhorrent to some, I appreciate that it is a valid strategy for others. Even just a couple of pounds here and there will buy some more stamps, after all. But winning a larger prize really can be fraught with problems, and if on reading the Rules of a competition you think to yourself those immortal words “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it”, then alarm bells should immediately start ringing. How exactly are you going to ‘cross the bridge’ of going on a non-transferable, fixed date, eight week round-the-world cruise for two if you’re a martyr to seasickness, there’s four of you and you only get four weeks leave at work? Or suddenly producing that driving licence or passport that you don’t possess, even though it was a requirement when entering the competition? Or turning into a twelve year-old girl who really wants to meet Busted when you are, in fact, a world-weary fifty year-old man who only ever listens to Radio 3? The worst case scenario, you may think, would be that you get to show how generous you are by graciously handing the prize back to be re-drawn, or donated to charity. Well, think again because some promoters won’t even allow that and will simply not award the prize at all. So, everybody loses out except the multinational conglomerate who’ve ended up getting loads of publicity from a competition without having to cough up anything at the end of it! Beware too of thinking that you might simply pick and choose certain elements of a prize, and forgo the rest. You know, for example, that you’ll never be able to go on the aforementioned dream cruise, but the £10,000 spending money sounds good. All very well until you discover that the money is waiting for you on the boat, or at your first port of call, or will be reimbursed at the end of the trip on production of the relevant receipts! The only thing worse than not winning a prize is winning it and then having it taken away from you. Snatched back relatively quickly and painlessly if you’re lucky, dragged away kicking and screaming leaving you disappointed, out of pocket and with plenty of egg on your face if you’re not. So why take the risk in the first place?
As I said in last month’s article, we compers have plenty of things to do to fill our time. So be selective, concentrate on winning the prizes that you know for certain you want and will enjoy, and you’ll probably find that the pressure starts to ease a little. Ideally of course, there shouldn’t be any pressure anyway since we should all be enjoying our hobby. Shouldn’t we?!
And for all of you conspiracy theorists out there, no I don’t have a grand masterplan to put everybody off entering competitions so that I can then nip in myself to win all of the prizes. A nice thought though.
So, until next month’s article – in which I’ll be revealing scientific evidence of the hidden dangers of comping, calling for comping magazines to be banned, and proving beyond doubt that all compers go straight to hell when they die (where there’s just one supermarket, a Netto that never runs competitions) – have fun!
Smid x
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